Company bank account closed with a vengeance

My chest started to clench up. My neck and face started to heat up. I was about to lose it.

One hour earlier…

After the final AGM of my company, one of the final processes involved in closing my company was closing the company bank account.

“But it’s just closing the account. You don’t have to do anything. The bank people are the ones doing the work!”

I hear you. But as in some things in life, they’re sometimes complicated for no good reason.

So it was that I arrived in the bank in the mid-morning. I didn’t want to be at the bank at an unearthly early hour, because you know, I just closed my company. I deserve a rest. I also didn’t want to be too late so I could avoid the lunch time crowd.

So I waited for my turn, holding my queue slip and my bank account stuff such as the bank account book and the digital doodads. I was at one of those bank branches in the town area, so the clientele were a little … upper class. There were a lot more people dressed in business attire for instance.

As a final impression, I was dressed in my business casual too, just so the bank staff took me seriously. 🙂

I whiled the time away, with the small amount of bliss in my heart because I’m going to finally be free of this nightmare… And my number was called.

“How may I help you?” the bank staff asked.
“I would like to close my company bank account. Here are the account stuff.” I handed the bank book and doodads to the bank staff.
“Give me a moment and I’ll get back to you.”

I stood at the counter, my mind wandering a little because it’s finally free from worrying about project deadlines, negative profits and the troublesome business partner.

“Hi! Sorry to keep you waiting. The rest of the money in the bank account will be written into a cheque. Please fill in the details of the recipient of the cheque.” She handed me a form. I filled it in, where I’m the recipient of the rest of the bank account money. Long story, maybe I’ll fill you in next time.

“Thank you. There will be a one dollar admin fee for the process. It will be deducted from the bank balance. Are you ok with it?”
“Sure. No problem.”

One dollar wasn’t that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. I continued to wait with that small inexplicable piece of bliss in my heart.

“Hi sir, sorry to keep you waiting. Here’s your cheque.” She handed me the cheque and the receipt of the whole transaction.

“Wait, where is the one dollar admin fee? I can’t find it in the transaction.” I asked.
“Oh that is not printed out.”

Not printed out?!?!

“I need it to be reflected in the transaction list. Can you print it in the transaction receipt?”
“I can’t do that…”
“Can you print out a separate receipt stating that there was an admin fee of one dollar?”
“I can’t do that either…”
“Can I speak to the manager? I need that one dollar printed out somewhere.”

You might think a missing one dollar isn’t a big deal. After all, it’s just one dollar. And at that point, the cheque went to me, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wrong.

I had to bring all that to my accountant so she could do the final financial statement for closing. She had a final number on her end, calculated from when the bank account was created, and then all the way to the end.

And this “end” included this final closing of the bank account. Everything must tally. That missing one dollar was unacceptable.

I don’t care if the admin fee was one dollar or one hundred dollars at that point. I just needed the admin fee reflected somewhere as an official document so I could give to my accountant.

“Hi sir, how can I help you?” The bank manager asked.
“I understand you charge a one dollar admin fee for closing bank accounts. Can you print that one dollar admin fee in a document for me?”
“I’m afraid we can’t do that.”

My chest started to clench up. My neck and face started to heat up. I was about to lose it.

“I really need that one dollar printed out. You can even print it out as a separate piece of paper.”
“I’m sorry. We can’t do that.”
“My accountant needs it. Is there anything you can do?”

After some back and forth, where the bank manager went into their office, probably to confer with an even higher level manager, she came back out again.

“Hi sir, sorry for the trouble. We have decided to simply waive off the admin fee. Here’s the updated print out.” She handed me the transaction list and the updated cheque. Both have the correct figure I was looking for.

“Thank you for your help. Is there anything else you need me to do?” I asked.
“No.”
“Have a nice day.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

I went back to my office and handed the documents to my secretary, who would then hand it to my accountant (the accountant didn’t work for me full-time). I also scanned the cheque addressed to me into an image file, of which was also to be given to the accountant to tally the figures.

Then I left the office and cashed in my cheque. I was *so* done with the day…

When handling money, I suggest taking great care, regardless of whether that money is yours or other people’s.